41 Best Anchovy Recipes, Including Anchovy Pasta, Salad Dressings, and More
There are more polarizing things than anchovies, but these tiny, briny fish definitely have their fans and their foes. If you fall into the former category, however, these anchovy recipes are for you. The deeply savory note that anchovies add to salad dressings and sauces is difficult to replicate with any other ingredient. What would a Caesar salad be without anchovies? Mixed with breadcrumbs that have been toasted in butter, anchovies add depth to pasta dishes and vegetable sides. (Even zucchini noodles benefit from this treatment.) Anchovies also play well with deviled eggs and are integral to making bagna cauda for dipping vegetables. Check out all of our favorite recipes featuring this delightfully fishy fish below—you may even find your tablemates switching over to Team Anchovy after a bite or two.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell1/41Salad Pasta
Nope, this is not pasta salad—it’s salad pasta. That means a whole salad’s worth of greens, folded into pasta to make a complete dinner in one bowl. The chickpea pasta adds protein and the garlicky anchovy sauce complements it especially well. This is one of those anchovy recipes that we return to again and again all winter long.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Pearl Jones2/41Young Carrots With Spring Onions, Sumac, and Anchovies
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Beatrice Chastka, Food Styling by Anna Billingskog7/41Jammy Eggs With Smoked Paprika Aioli
Photo by Michael Graydon & Nikole Herriott8/41Marinated Anchovies With Bread and Butter
For a simple, just-the-right-amount-of-salty appetizer, doctor up a tin of anchovies. (Here's a guide to our favorite anchovy brands.)The acid, heat, and olive oil mellow the anchovies’ flavor, and serving them with a seedy loaf of bread and butter rounds the recipe.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Beatrice Chastka, Food Styling by Olivia Mack Anderson10/41Pantry Pasta Puttanesca
Keep anchovies, capers, olives, canned tomatoes, and canned tuna on hand and a briny, flavor-packed, classic Italian pasta will always be a dinner option.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Prop Styling by Megan Hedgpeth, Food Styling by Liza Jernow11/41Vanilla Butter Anchovy Toasts
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Olivia Mack Anderson14/41Provencal Chicken With Tomatoes, Olives, and Basil
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Prop Styling by Megan Hedgpeth, Food Styling by Liza Jernow17/41Tonnato Eggs
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell20/41Zucchini Noodles with Anchovy Butter
This version of “zoodles” (yup, zucchini noodles) tastes surprisingly indulgent, tossed with plenty of sautéed anchovies, cheese, red pepper flakes, and olive oil.
Photo by Stephen Kent Johnson, Prop Styling by Kalen Kaminski, Food Styling by Rebecca Jurkevich21/41Pantry Pasta with Garlic, Anchovies, and Parmesan
Photo by Michael Graydon & Nikole Herriott, Prop Styling by Kalen Kaminski, Food Styling by Rebecca Jurkevich23/41Broccoli Caesar
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, food styling by Katherine Sacks26/41Pan Bagnat Sandwich with Tuna, Anchovies, and Parsley
This classic Provençal sandwich only gets better as sits, and its briny, garlicky flavors beat plain old mayo any day. It's great for a picnic.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell27/41Crispy Chicken Thighs With Spring Vegetables
Photo by Stephen Kent Johnson, Prop Styling by Kalen Kaminski, Food Styling by Rebecca Jurkevich33/41Crispy-Skinned Fish With Herb Sauce
You don't need a culinary school degree to cook fish with skin as crunchy as a potato chip. Grab your nonstick skillet, start the fish skin side down, and slowly raise the heat. The skin will lie flat, gradually rendering fat like a strip of bacon, while the flesh gently cooks through. Serve it with a bright and briny sauce of herbs, garlic, and anchovy paste.
35/41Nasi Lemak
36/41Bagna Cauda
Literally translated as "hot bath," this dipping sauce for vegetables—made of butter, garlic, anchovies, and olive oil—often appears in many Italian homes as part of the Christmas Eve buffet. The routine goes like this: Vegetable pieces are dipped into the sauce (a fondue-style fork will help) and then eaten, with a slice of bread held underneath to catch the drippings. Once the bread is soaked with sauce, it gets eaten, too.
Photo by Tara Donne, food and prop styling by Ali Nardi37/41Spanish-Style Tomato Toast with Garlic and Olive Oil
Photo by Alex Lau, Prop Styling by Amy Wilson, Food Styling by Rebecca Jurkevich39/41Spicy Grilled Chicken with Crunchy Fennel Salad
Photo by Michael Graydon & Nikole Herriott, Prop Styling by Kalen Kaminski, Food Styling by Andy Baraghani40/41Tomatoes and Haricots Verts With Anchovies
If you've got good tomatoes, treat them with respect by pairing with anchovy fillets, crisp green beans, good olive oil, and smoked salt. With simple anchovy recipes like this, you've got to make sure that the fish are high quality.
